India and South Korea sign Revised DTAA agreement

SEOUL: India and South Korea signed a Revised Double Taxation Avoidance Pact and came to an agreement to improve the bilateral economic cooperations.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on his third leg of his tour, visited South Korea for diplomatic talks to take the bilateral cooperations between the two countries to the next level. He met the South Korean President Park Geun-hye. The two leaders of the the two nations went into a dicussion about the improved scope of economic cooperations between the countries.

The two leaders felt that the relations between the two countries was negotiated for long. They welcomed “commencement of negotiations to amend the India-Korea CEPA by June 2016 with a view to achieving qualitative and quantitative increase of trade through an agreed roadmap,” a joint statement issued after the meeting said.

The two nations have revised the DTAA which came into existence in 1986. Modi offered that he would establish a channel “Korea plus” to facilitate their investments and cooperations in India.
“We agreed to review the Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement and other market access related issues. I conveyed our desire to see a balanced and broad-based growth in bilateral trade,” Modi added.

The bilateral trade is in favour of South Korea. Trade deficit increased from USD 5.1 billion in 2009-10 to USD 8.27 billion in 2013-14, The Economic Times reports.

The Ministry of Strategy and Finance and the Export- Import Bank of Korea expressed their intention to provide USD 10 billion for mutual cooperation in infrastructure, the statement said.

“The Indian government expressed its hope to discuss partnership with Korea with an aim to modernise the Indian shipbuilding industry,” the joint statement said.

The leaders also discussed the progress made in establishing Korean Industrial park in Rajasthan. Korea has also made clear its intentions in joining the ship manufacturing industry in India.